Las Ramblas stretches from city center down to the pier, and is well marked on all tourist maps and guidebooks. What is not marked are all the fantastic side streets, live bird vendors, artists, fruit markets, etc. that you will discover rambling down this wide and lively street. There is a bird sanctuary in a church off one alleyway and the entrance to an enormous fruit and vegetable market down another. There are people painting pictures, walking on stilts, selling pet parakeets, advertising for shows, and of course lots of other tourists! Lots of shopping in stores along the way as well and many restaurants.

"I am from the Amazon" reads one of the signs next to a human statue who is wearing camouflage, has painted his face green and grey, and pretends to have moved to Barcelona straight from the rainforests! He uses a few tree branches as props and randomly poses for the people walking by. Such human statues, street performers (sometimes break dancing, sometimes tap dancing), loud birds and beautiful sweet smelling flowers are found on Las Ramblas. It's a huge pedestrian walkway that starts at Plaza Catalunya and ends at the Columbus Monument, and is lined with cafes, stores, and bookshops. Probably the most popular place visited in Barcelona.

First of all, you may wonder why the s in brackets, but if the inhabitants use most forms of terminology who am I to adjudicate? It seems like a single road but is actually made up of five separate ones, the name of each of which starts with Rambla.

Anyway, one or five, there it is or there they are. Huge numbers of residents of the city walk on it in informal processions in the evenings and at Sunday lunchtimes, and most of the many tourists attracted by the city will be there at some stage of the evening.

There are trees throughout the route and under them are the stalls, most of which sell either flowers or caged birds.

Going up from the bottom, you will encounter some areas that are a bit dodgy area after dark, including the big Colón [Columbus] statue, the superb Maritime Museum in the old Drassanes shipyards, the Liceu Opera House, reopened after extensive fire damage, and a marvellous market, mainly for produce, fruit and vegetables. Barcelona has not, thankfully, joined in the trend of moving its markets out to where nobody can find them. This is all in addition to numerous eating places and hotels. Then nearer the top there are garments for sale, laid out on the pavements with cheap but very attractive silk scarves with pictures by Picasso, Dali and Miró.

Then just near to the street are the Plaça Reial where the lamp standards were Gaudi's first commision, the old Hospital de la Sants Creu now used by the University, and the whole of the Barri Gòtic with its fine buildings.

It is easy to find accommodation in this area but I have kept to the Rough Guide's guidance and restricted myself to the area north of the Liceu. Check this website for a map link to all the many hostels and hotels that it lists.

The heart of the Barri Gòtic is La Rambla, possibly the most famous street in Spain. Actually it's a series of pedestrianised streets - five Rambla in total - stretching for 1.5 kilometers through the Old Town to the harbor’s edge where old men sit and fish, enticing shoals of silvery little fish to the surface with scattered handfuls of stale bread.

It's on La Rambla that you'll find the city's soul. With no cars to get in their way, folks amble nonchalantly along its length taking in the street artists, mimes, portrait painters, buskers and kiosks selling everything from newspapers and lottery tickets to yams, chestnuts, live birds and flowers.

As you wander down the Ramblas towards the port – keep an eye out for other highlights, like

* The Sant Josep or "Boqueria" Market -- Wrought iron building which houses one of the most popular and traditional of the city's food markets.

* The fountain of Les Canalettes -- Press the brass tap and take a drink from this fountain. Legend has it that strangers who do this are sure to return to Barcelona.

* Pla de la Boqueria -- This is the part which lies between Hospital street and Boqueria street. There is a mosaic by Joan Miró on the pavement.

* Palau Güell -- Carrer Nou de la Rambla, 3. The work of Antoni Gaudi -- built as the Barcelona residence of the Count Guell. The building houses the Museu de les Arts del Espectacle.

* Reials Drassanes -- The most important and most complete medieval dockyards in existence are to be found at the end of the Rambla. The Museum Maritime is housed inside.

Most of the restaurants along this walk look like fun, after our first meal there and being charged twice what the offerings in the window said, we didn’t return. I'd stick to the street cafe's and do people watching. Keep in mind, however, that the petty crime rate in Barcelona is fairly high. Pickpockets just love tourists who wander around La Rambla or the other city sights with their heads in the air and plenty of cash in their pockets. So beware.

The Rambla is the promenade to be in Barcelona.Daily markets of flowers and birds in special "Kiosks".Stands with paintings and souvenirs-especially those of the local "Football Club-Barca".

La Rambla begins in Placa Catalunya and ends in front of the Columbus Monument.Let us start at the beginning-Placa Catalunya.First you will see "Font Canaletes"it is an iron 19the century old fountain.Everybody who intends to come back to Barcelona has to drink it's water.On both sides of this promenade you will recognize important sites and buildings (Gothic Quartier).

La Boqueria (fresh food market)on the right side and "Placa Reial" on the left are real highlights.Placa Reial was built in 1848 as a cloister and the remaining galleries became shops.Here you will find beside many famous and cheap restaurants, two remarkable lampposts of "Gaudi".On Sundays-the placa is a fair for stamps and coin collectors.Walking on La Rambla is walking to see all different people but also a place to be seen by different people.To end our trip on the promenade:the Columbus Statue,built in 1888 as a monument for the Wold Fair.You can get up to the top and have an overwhelming view on the port and the city.